Arashi Seijin The Storm Sage
by shinikage
Summary: What if Naruto found something that set him on the path of becoming a better ninja than in cannon at a very young age. How would his life and the lives of those around him change? Read and find out. Smart Naruto. Hard-working Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

_**Arashi Seijin**_

_**The Storm Sage**_

_**Discliamer: I don't Naruto or any of the characters therin, they belong to their respective companies and creators. This story is just for entertainment and no money is been made out of this and one more thing everything else not seen in any manga or anime belongs solely to me.**_

'_Blah, blah,blah…..' _Thoughts

_Blah, blah,blah….. _Written material.

**"Blah, blah,blah….." **Demon or Summon Speak.

_**'Blah,**** blah,blah…..'**_ Demon or Summon Speak.

"Blah, blah,blah….." Normal Speak.

Not Beta-tested, so sorry in advance for any typos and grammatical errors.

PM me if anyone is interested in beta-reading.

Now onto the story….

_**Chapter 1**_

_**The Beginning**_

A small four year old boy could be seen scrambling away as fast as his small legs could afford towards an yet unknown direction and behind him one could see a large mob of civilians carrying a variety of tools ranging from pitchfork to bamboo sticks and everything in between crying out for his blood and hurling anything they could get their hands on towards the small child to make him slow down or to make him fall so that they could quickly catch and finish the demon child before Sandaime who had gone on a diplomatic mission to suna a month ago and was due back tomorrow got here and stonewall any and all attempts to get rid of the demon boy and even if they could manage to get rid of the demon in the presence of the Sandamine they couldn't escape punishment and hence it was imperative that they got rid of the demon and any evidence with the help of the civilian council before the Sandaime got back.

The council had used this time when the Hokage was away to initiate this plan to get rid of the boy purely to protect their backs and discreetly told the civilians that had grudge on the demon that if they got rid of the boy before the Hokage got back they could get away with murder, as powerful as the council was they couldn't get rid of the boy with the presence of the Sandaime in the village without risking themselves. The mob of civilians had tried too many times in the past month but had only caught him three times and all the time the little brat had escaped their clutches and this may be their last time to get rid of the demon without fearing retribution before they forever lost their chance and they were determined to not to let the brat escape them this time.

The small boy affectionately named Naruto by his parents who loved him very much and even died to protect him not that the boy knew anything about his parents, was ridiculed, hated and ignored by nearly everyone in the village ever since he could remember. At first it had hurt seeing other orphans and children loved and cherished by everyone but over the time he had gotten used to it but the hurt feeling hadn't lessened but now had few people that loved him unconditionally and he was extremely grateful for it. Overtime he had also noticed that the villagers tended to chase and hurt him whenever he was alone as a result he had pretty good idea of the alleyways, corners and shortcuts to get from one place to another for a quick escape. As the mean old woman of the orphanage always threw him out at dawn of everyday and only allowed him in during lunch and at dinner and only to sleep and as a result Naruto had been forced to find an alternate place to stay where the villagers either couldn't think of looking or were afraid of the area.

Nearly a month ago the caretaker of the orphanage had finally kicked out Naruto from the orphanage telling him that now he was old enough to look after himself and he was not allowed to come to the orphanage and if he dared to come back there would be consequences. Naruto had no intention of ever going back, he didn't like it there everyone was mean there and he also didn't get enough to eat even during lunch and dinner and he had learned to scavenge to keep himself fed.

He had no worries of been thrown out over the last year when he was always kicked out of the orphanage for the day Naruto had to find himself some place where he could eat in peace and stay hidden from the villagers that meant to harm him. Over the year he had tried many places but all were ultimately found but he had finally found a place where the villagers were afraid to enter. He had found the place when he had been running from a mob of drunken villagers one night.

-Flashback-

Three and half year old Naruto was running as fast as his small legs could carry him while dodging the various items thrown at him away from a large mob of villagers intent on beating him to death.

'_Shit I have to get away from them, I can't get caught and damn I had to take the wrong turn back there and now I don't know where I am and I have never been here. Damn damn damn.'_ A worried Naruto cursed himself while running even faster as the villagers were slowly gaining on him.

Soon Naruto saw a huge dark forest with a large chained gate.

'_Maybe I can lose the villagers in the darkness there.'_ With that Naruto sprinted towards and into the forest and few minutes of running Naruto heard no sound from behind him and stopped and turned around and found no one chasing him and cautiously looking around Naruto finally decided that he had escaped the villagers and decided to get out of the forest and back to the orphanage and as soon as he neared the gate to get out there he heard noises and quickly hiding himself peeked out and found the mob of villagers milling about several meters from the gate but no one coming near it.

'_Why aren't they coming in?'_ Naruto thought confused at the villagers behavior earlier wherever Naruto they had followed without hesitation.

'_Maybe they are afraid.'_ And after few minutes of watching the villagers Naruto concluded that they were definitely afraid.

'_But why are they afraid, it doesn't matter I can't get out of here with them there or they will catch me.'_ Naruto thought shaking his head.

'_Wait the villagers are afraid to come inside that means I can stay as long as I want and do anything here and the villagers can't get to me here, yes I finally found a place where I can stay without the fear of villagers.'_ Naruto thought while pumping his hands in excitement.

'_I can't get out of here now better I go inside and try some fruits that nay grow here to eat, I feeling hungry as well as thirsty.'_ With that thought in his mind Naruto turned and headed back inside the forest.

After nearly an hour of searching Naruto found a large bush of edible berries and also a small stream from where he could get water and in his search he also stumbled into a small opening hidden by shrubs and found a large hollow inside a tree which was huge enough to hold several adults and in turn Naruto found himself a place to stay and his very own secret place. That night Naruto spent the night inside the hollow afraid that the villagers could still be out near the gate waiting for him to come out.

Next day early in the morning Naruto got out of the forest after finding no one outside and quietly avoiding the roads that villagers frequented made it to the orphanage, thankfully everyone was asleep and as his room was way out in the attic was able to quietly sneak into his bed a skill he had been forced to develop as Naruto wasn't allowed inside if he didn't come on time and was forced to sleep outside.

-End Flashback-

Since then the hollow tree in the dark forest known as the "The Forest of Death" to everyone else not that Naruto knew or would find out for a long time to come had become his secret home and only place he really called home in both heart and mind even if it was temporary.

Currently Naruto was nearing the gates of the forest of death and his temporary home where he knew the villagers wouldn't follow him and this time the villagers were determined not to let him escape but fortunately or unfortunately from ones point of view Naruto closing in on his destination and eventual escape.

Even when such a large group was chasing Naruto was bursting with happiness and excitement which was highly unusual and reason for this could be traced back to a particular find few hours earlier when Naruto as usual was scavenging through garbage for food he found a book in poor condition but Naruto could still read the title and it had said "Guide to Shinobi Career" and that had gotten Naruto very excited as he wanted to be most powerful shinobi ever. Now one may question so as to how could a small child of four read so well the answer to that was that Naruto had forced Hokage-oji-san to teach him to read and write nearly a year ago so that he could read all fairy tales the old lady of the orphanage read to other kids from the books but not to him and all the kids were always very excited about that and he had wanted to know what was so interesting and after learning to read he had sneaked out with the books and had privately read them and from there Naruto had made up his mind to become the strongest ninja ever.

Naruto had pestered his Hokage-oji-san to teach him to be a ninja as he was said to be the strongest ninja in Konoha but his oji-san had said that he had to wait till he was 8 years old and then he could join the academy to become a ninja, Naruto had been disappointed but had relented but now he had a golden opportunity to learn to be a ninja from the book he had found and he wasn't going to waste it and he wasn't going to tell anyone not even his oji-san so that no one could stop him from becoming the strongest ninja ever.

Reaching his destination Naruto immediately brought out the book with utmost care so as not to damage it even more and was about to open it to read when Naruto's stomach growled reminding him that he hadn't eaten for quite some time.

With a sheepish expression Naruto reverently placed the book in one corner vowing to read it as soon as possible and went outside to have some berries to satiate his hunger. Half an hour later he returned having satisfied some of his hunger and feeling tired and sleepy, looking longingly at the book in the corner Naruto decided to go to sleep and start up on the book first thing tomorrow much more refreshed and energetic with that Naruto made his way to his so called bed made up of old futon he had found in the garbage which he had washed and cleaned thoroughly before using and promptly fell asleep.

Next morning Naruto blearily opened his eyes and looked around as soon as his eyes fell on the book that lay in the corner Naruto was instantly alert. Getting up quickly Naruto went outside and after a quick wash up and bath and small breakfast consisting of berries and last of the meat he had stored from hunting and cooking a rabbit he came inside and quickly picked up the book and opened it to start reading.

Even with the poor condition the beginning pages were thankfully somewhat readable.

_The most important thing a shinobi absolutely must have isn't kunai and shuriken but stealth, deception and info gathering and analyzing which most of the shinobis nowadays have nearly neglected for flare and style._

_**Stealth**__ is most important ability a shinobi must have, stealth is ability to sneak into enemy or if required allied territory without being found for espionage, intelligence and assassination which are the main missions of a shinobi. So I urge the reader to develop and hone this ability as much as they can._

_The next important ability is __**Deception**__ which very few shinobis use at present, deception is a way to deceive your enemies or when required even your allies. I think this is the most important ability a ninja can ever have using this ability even the weakest can kill the strongest ninja. For example a Jōnin who is susceptible to genjutsu was fighting a Chūnin who according to the information was a primary taijutsu user but in fight the Chūnin suddenly uses genjutsu with a very high proficiency and defeats the Jōnin, the Jōnin was defeated because the Chūnin had deceived the Jōnin by providing misinformation that he had no genjutsu abilities and Jōnin overconfident went into the fight with thinking and was defeated. This is one way but there are lots of ways deception can be used to fool your enemies and if required your allies and if you keep at it you will become better at using deception as a truly powerful weapon as you gain more experience._

_The next ability __**Information gathering and analyzing**__ is a broad scale ability that includes everything from creating a spy network to gather information to analyzing gathered information as well as a situation to find any hidden details._

_**Chakra:**__ The first and most important for being a ninja is accessing ones chakra. chakra is the mixture of physical and mental energies and is present in all living things and to be a ninja ones has learn to access and harness it to learn and use various ninja techniques._

_One can access ones chakra by meditating. One will automatically understand when they have done this and then next step is to bring out the chakra using the tiger hand seal as shown in the figure both of this has be accomplished simultaneously to start on a path to be a ninja. It is recommended to practice bringing out ones chakra till one can do it without hand seal and without particularly concentrating on it._

_Note: It may take one few weeks to a month to learn to access ones chakra._

_**Warning**__: Do not read further without learning to do the above steps. _

Naruto was going to read further before trying to access his chakra but seeing the warning decided against it and immediately put the book down and selecting a suitable location sat down to meditate to access his chakra.

-Time-Skip-

Naruto had thought that he could have accessed ones chakra within hours but two days later Naruto was still nowhere near accessing his chakra and was getting really frustrated. Taking a deep breath Naruto forced himself to calm down and started meditating again to access his chakra, an hour later Naruto felt a falling sensation and was immediately surrounded by warm feeling and Naruto immediately opened his eyes immediately knowing what had happened and shouted.

"Yatta! I finally accessed my chakra, yahoo!"

Few minutes of bouncing around from happiness at his success Naruto finally calmed down.

'_Now that I have accessed my chakra it's time for the next step that is to bring out my chakra as explained in the book.' _

Naruto immediately sat back in his meditation posture and made the tiger hand seal as shown in the figure and concentrated and an hour later Naruto was able to bring out chakra.

Opening his eyes Naruto had a big smile on his face at his fast success but immediately got back to his exercise so that he could do this easily, quickly, without hand seal and without truly concentrating.

A week later Naruto was quickly able access his chakra and bring it out without using the hand seal and without truly concentrating on it. He wanted to read further in the book but decided to do it after visiting oji-san whom he had found out had returned from visit on one of his foray in the village to scavenge for things he needed.

Getting out of the forest quietly Naruto made his way to the Hokage tower discreetly while avoiding most of the populated routes, it took him sometime to navigate quietly and reach the tower. Naruto made his way inside the tower while loudly announcing this arrival and quickly avoided the secretary that tried to catch him to throw him out for arriving unannounced; quickly moving to the door Naruto banged the doors open and rushed inside.

"Oji-san!" Naruto shouted happy at seeing his favorite person.

"Sorry Hokage-sama he just rushed in, I couldn't stop him." The secretary apologized who had rushed in after Naruto.

"It's okay." Nodding her head at Hokage the secretary left closing the door behind her.

"So Naruto what brings you here?" The Hokage asked finally taking notice of the state of Naruto or specifically his clothes.

"Naruto what happened to your clothes?" Hokage asked before Naruto could answer his previous question. Naruto's clothes were torn, bloodied and dirty as if he had literally rolled down the mountain with them and hadn't changed it since then as Naruto himself looked clean Sarutobi concluded that Naruto was cleaning himself regularly but wasn't changing his clothes and was wearing the same set for a long time, but the question to be asked was why?

"Hehehehe…. Well after been thrown out of the orphanage last month I didn't have extra clothes so I couldn't change them and had to make do with these." Naruto replied looking embarrassed.

Killing intent started flooding the room as soon as Sarutobi heard what Naruto said. Naruto flinched and started shivering at feeling the killing intent and seeing the anger in his oji-san's eyes, seeing this Sarutobi immediately clamped down on his anger.

"I am sorry Naruto, I am not angry at you but what do you mean you where thrown out of orphanage?"

"Well last month the mean old lady of the orphanage threw me out and said not to come back or there will be consequences and that I was old enough to take care of myself." Naruto replied.

"Did she now?" Sarutobi replied while taking a deep breath calming down his anger.

"Well now that you can't stay at the orphanage, we will have to get you your own place, won't we." The Hokage said having decided to get Naruto his very own apartment as Naruto had been technically taking care of himself for past month and seemed to be doing hell of a fine job.

"Really, really my very own apartment, truly?" Naruto asked disbelief evident in his voice.

Seeing the nod Naruto rushed in and jumped up and hugged his oji-san tightly tear eyed.

"Now let's go and get you settled in your new apartment then we will go buy new clothes for you and food and groceries."

Taking Naruto's hand Sarutobi Shunshined to one of the apartments that were under Hokage's control and could be loaned or given to anyone they wanted.

After taking a thorough tour of the apartment and giving Naruto the key, Sarutobi took Naruto to a shinobi store he trusted for durable clothes shopping.

After buying him few sets of different clothes most of which Naruto selected were training clothes Sarutobi took Naruto to the newly opened ramen stand called the Ichiraku's Ramen stand.

That's where Naruto had his first taste of ramen which would later on become his favorite food and stand which he would frequent in the future as it would be the only play that would serve him fairly and also meet his first precious people other than the Hokage, the stand owner and his daughter both of whom would truly appreciate and love him.

After eating his full which consisted of ten bowls of ramen that Sarutobi looked on with a sweat drop took him back to his apartment.

"Naruto listen I will be giving set allowance every week till you are able to earn on your own, you will use this allowance to buy anything you might need from food to clothing." Sarutobi told Naruto after they were back in the apartment.

"Really oji-san my very own allowance that I can use as I want?" Naruto asked looking excited.

"Yes, but remember to use it very wisely as you will get only set amount a week and not waste it." Naruto nodded at that.

"Now get some sleep it's getting late, I will see you another time." Sarutobi said as he left using Shunshin.

Making his way to the well-kept futon in his bedroom Naruto collapsed on the futon not even bothering to change out of the new clothes he was wearing and quickly fell asleep tried from the busy whole day vowing to go back to his hollow tree first thing in the morning.

The next morning Naruto blearily opened his eyes and immediately tensed as he looked around for a second not recognizing his surroundings but immediately calmed down after remembering yesterday's events. Get up from his futon made his way into the bathroom to get a shower and freshen himself. Removing the new clothes he was wearing that he his oji-san had bought for him after making him throw old clothes got in the shower. After showering, Naruto took out one set of training clothes from his purchases consisting of dark green shorts and grey t-shirt.

Making his way to the kitchen Naruto prepared the premade breakfast in the groceries oji-san had purchased for him, having a full breakfast for the first time in a long time Naruto quickly cleaned up and made his way out of the apartment.

Locking up the apartment quickly made his way to his tree house, reaching his destination Naruto quickly took out his book to read ahead so that he could continue his training to become a ninja.

_Now that you have learned to access your chakra the next and one of the most important thing for a shinobi is memorizing as well as recreate the hand seals from memory perfectly, the faster one can do the hand seals faster they can perform jutsus most if not all jutsus require hand seals and only way to achieve this is through constant practice. One should dedicate a couple of hours from their training time to practice hand seals till one is confident of speed as well perfect recreation of the hand seals. This is to be practiced without the use of chakra hence this practice is recommended to be used after other chakra intensive training._

_The hand seals are as shown below._

There number of seals shown below, looking at them Naruto decided to at least try to form the hand seals perfectly even if slowly before reading further.

Couple of hours later Naruto could form each hand seal shown perfectly even if slowly. Each simpler seals took him nearly 2 mins to form while harder seals took him nearly 5 mins each even then Naruto was happy at been at least being able to form hand seals perfectly, he would faster in the future as he practice.

Having achieved what he had set out to do Naruto picked up the book again having every intention of reading further and continue on his personal training to be a ninja.

_There are different jutsus that shinobis use and most don't master any one jutsu but gain proficiency in couple of jutsus, there are very few that gain mastery in certain jutsu._

_The most common of these jutsu are given as below._

_**Taijutsu**__ - This type of jutsu really only uses ones physical strength, and involves a lot of hand-hand combat. Taijutsu attacks are typically very fast, complex and usually require no chakra. Because these kinds of attacks use only physical strength and are so much different from the other jutsus, most counter attacks won't work and thus gives the Taijutsu user an advantage, every shinobi is somewhat proficient in this art but there are very few masters, but to the reader it is recommended to keep on improving in this art at their leisure after gaining a good proficiency._

_**Kenjutsu**__: It is the art of sword combat, very few shinobi practice this art most which are from mist village. To study this or not is complete up to the reader._

_**Ninjutsu**__ - Probably the most common Jutsu type, Ninjutsu uses hand seals and chakra to make attacks. The more control someone has over their chakra the more powerful they'll be able to make a ninjutsu attack be. If the user is not able to fully concentrate while performing a ninjutsu attack it will not work successfully. A good example of a standard Ninjutsu skill would be the Body Substitute Skill. This technique allows the user to turn a regular item (usually a broken branch of some kind), into a real looking person. However, this person is only an illusion and cannot actually hurt someone._

_**Genjutsu**__ - These kinds of attacks use mostly illusions, and are performed to confuse the enemy; giving them visions and hallucinations. They're mainly used if the user wants to run away or attack from a distance without the enemy knowing. Genjutsu attacks usually will require a lot of skill, and if performed incorrectly will not work. These types of attacks use up a high amount of chakra and need perfect hand seals. Because of this they're most often used by a fighter with very high amounts of chakra or as a last resort._

_**Kinjutsu**__ - Kinjutsu attacks are the techniques that have been banned or outlawed by the leader of a village. These kinds of attacks are usually ones that can do extreme amounts of damage and are dangerous if to fall into the wrong hands. It's because of this that they are made illegal._

_**Fūinjutsu**__: It is the art of sealing. There are very few masters of this art and also to study this or not is completely up to the reader._

_**Hijutsu**__ - Also known as Bloodline Limit techniques, these attacks are limited to those who belong to a certain clan or are the only one able to perform the attack. An example of a Hijutsu technique is byakugan. It's only known by members of the Hyuuga Clan, and is only possible because of those clans bloodline limits._

_**Doujutsu**__ - This kind of Jutsu involves using one's eyes, and will recognize others Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu techniques to form a counter attack. Two examples of Doujutsu attacks would be Sharingan and byakugan. Typically the only people who are able to use Doujutsu attacks are people born into a family that already knows it. Because these attacks don't require much chakra they can be used from long amounts of time, without tiring the user._

_This concludes the various jutsus commonly used by various shinobis._

Naruto was going to continue reading ahead but his stomach growled at the exact same moment. Grinning sheepishly Naruto decided to go back to his apartment to have some lunch as the sun outside told him that it was approaching lunch time and return back here after an hour of rest to continue ahead.

Closing the book and placing it back in the corner Naruto left his tree house and quickly made his way to his apartment, unlocking his apartment Naruto let himself.

Preparing sufficient lunch from the groceries bought yesterday, Naruto consumed it and after a quick clean up collapsed on the couch for quite rest before having to head back to continue his training.

After an hour of rest Naruto locked up his apartment and made his way to his now what was going to be his training area hence forth.

Reaching his training area Naruto quickly acquired the book and continued reading ahead.

_**Chakra control**__ is one of the, if not the most important ability to have to become a strong and well-rounded shinobi. Chakra control not only helps in mastering jutsus quicker and also in usage of jutsus for the longer period of time as a shinobi having good chakra control wastes lesser chakra in using jutsus than a shinobi having bad chakra control._

_The following are the chakra control exercises to be learnt in the sequence given below only after mastering the earlier exercise._

_**Leaf floating exercise:**__ In this exercise one has to float a leaf above their body using chakra and hold it there, any part of the body can be used to float the leaf but floating and holding the leaf on the forehead is recommended for beginners as it is easy to concentrate chakra on the part than anywhere else. _

_Tip: Too much chakra launches the leaf away while little chakra doesn't hold the leaf._

_**Tree climbing exercise:**__ This exercise should only be attempted after mastering the earlier exercise. In this exercise one has to learn to walk up (which means walking up not climbing) any solid vertical surface without the use of hands using just legs. Trees are easily available and also any lasting damage done during this exercise doesn't cost or harm anyone. Being able to walk, run and battle on any tree/vertical surface without focus or concentration for an hour means that you have truly mastered this exercise._

_Tip: Too much chakra one will blast of the surface damaging it while too little one won't stick. Getting a running start is recommended at the beginning. _

_Note: After mastering this exercise it is recommended to read ahead as one can work on other areas of shinobi arts simultaneously with chakra control._

_**Water walking exercise:**__ This exercise should also only be attempted after mastering the earlier exercise. In this exercise one has to learn to walk on water but the difference here from the tree climbing exercise is that one has to keep a constant flow of chakra below their feet to compensate for their weight as well as the liquid nature of water._ _Being able to walk, run and battle on any water/liquid surface without focus or concentration for an hour means that you have truly mastered this exercise._

_**Kunai balancing exercise:**__ This exercise is usually for shinobi's that are trying to become a medic-nin. So others can skip this exercise, the exercise is balancing a kunai on a fingertip and slowly learning to balance kunai on all ten fingertip and after finishing this one has to learn to balance their whole body upside down with a single finger on the tip of the kunai which will be half buried in the ground with its tip facing upwards and out of the ground._

_Mastering all these exercise means that you have attained perfect chakra control._

_**There are rumors that one can increase their control even more by trying mold their elemental as well as normal chakra into any form or shape but there isn't any proof of it.**_

_One can start working on chakra detection after mastering tree exercise, the concept is easy but execution is difficult and takes a long time to learn, in this one has to increase and spread their chakra senses to detect other chakra signatures. It is one of the most important ability a shinobi must have and can help in detecting and avoiding unseen, hidden and surprise attacks._

Instead of stopping there and simply trying out the chakra control exercise, Naruto decided to read slightly ahead to get a glimpse of next part, fortunately for Naruto his decision of reading ahead would be a good thing as he would be able start on one art he might have neglected until chakra control practices which in turn would have him waste the time he could have used to train in one of the vital shinobi arts.

_The next part focuses on Taijutsu specifically on increasing body strength, speed and stamina. This can be achieved alongside chakra control exercise. This guide doesn't contain any styles but basics of taijutsu and tips on improving one's body._

_Sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups and running laps are the exercises that can help improve one's speed, strength and stamina. The number of sets can be increased with time as well as convenience of shinobi. One can improve this by_

Naruto couldn't read further because the writing was completely smudged. The next thing could read no not read but understand from somewhat visible pictures were proper way of punching, kicking, dodging and countering. After that nothing was even remotely eligible except the last few paragraphs in last few pages. Deciding to read further after he mastered the leaf floating exercise, Naruto softly closed the book and carefully placed the book in one corner seeing the condition of the pages were the last few paragraphs were eligible.

Having little trouble deciding whether to first start taijutsu exercises or to start off with leaf floating exercise, after few minutes of indecision Naruto finally decided to start off with the leaf floating exercise. Naruto had seen a guy in green jumpsuit with weird eyebrows running around shouting something about youth and also taijutsu training early in morning when he was thrown out of orphanage and whenever he had seen that weird eyebrows training it had always been early in the morning and that was what made Naruto decide to start with leaf floating exercise now and taijutsu training next day early morning.

Naruto quickly made his way to a clearing he had found not too far away from his tree house which he could use as his training ground from now on. Gathering sufficient amount of leaves Naruto sat down to start on his leaf floating exercise. Placing a leaf on his forehead Naruto tried to float and hold the leaf.

Hours later late in the evening Naruto had made absolutely no progress on the leaf floating exercise, feeling tired and frustrated decided to call it a day as he had to get up early the next day to start on his taijutsu training and he was also feeling hungry and that might have played a major part in calling it a day. Naruto quickly left the clearing to head back to his apartment directly. Preparing and having his dinner, Naruto immediately collapsed on his futon and fell asleep having changed into his night clothes that he had bought.

Next morning Naruto woke up at the crack of dawn without any intervention from outside sadly the reason for the ease with which Naruto could wake up so early was that the caretaker of the orphanage always forced him to wake up at the crack of dawn and immediately threw him out and allowed him in only for meager lunch and then at night for small dinner and sleep.

Waking up Naruto finished his morning rituals and after preparing his breakfast and consuming it Naruto changing into his training clothes and immediately made his way to the training ground to start on his taijutsu training.

Getting his book from the tree house Naruto made his way to his clearing intent learning to properly punch, kick, dodge and counter after performing sets of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and laps. Hours later a visibly tired could be seen lying on the clearing panting heavily, he had been able to do 5 laps of the huge clearing, 3 sets of ten each sit-ups before feeling the pain in his legs and started on his push-ups but was only able to perform a single set before his arms burned with pain. Doing push-ups had put him in a quandary as he had no place he could do that exercise but fortunately he found a tree whose roots had grown down to the soil from the branches and entwining with each other (like a banyan tree) to form a perfect place for him to do pull-ups. Naruto similar to push-ups had been able to only do a single set before his arms burned with pain.

Deciding he had done enough, Naruto decided it was time to learn to properly perform punches, kicks, dodges and counters. He had been able to perform proper punches very slowly but not kicks and while trying to learn dodges and counters he realized that he needed a partner to learn this properly so Naruto decided to forgo these for now and concentrate on what he could properly train in and that was the reason Naruto was laying flat on his back panting heavily.

The sun had risen completely and was high in the sky and Naruto decided that was enough of taijutsu training for now and start on leaf floating exercise after a small break.

Locating a shaded and cool area Naruto sat down with his collection of leaves to work on his leaf floating exercise. Couple of hours later Naruto had made slight progress in the exercise now he could float the leaf if only for few seconds before it blasted or slide off. Seeing that it was nearly lunch time he decided to take a longer break for lunch including a hour of rest before returing to continue the leaf floating exercise.

Going back to his apartment, Naruto prepared his lunch and after consuming it had an hour of rest and returned back to his training ground.

After having his break Naruto was back at his training ground performing his leaf floating exercise again because he was still having small pain burns in his muscles to try any taijutsu training for few hours before taking a break and having a small evening snack he had brought along with him, later Naruto decided to get in some taijutsu training as his muscle pains had finally eased off before calling it a day and returning to his apartment for dinner and well deserved sleep.

-Time-skip-

Two months later…

Naruto could be seen standing hunched in the training ground breathing heavily with a wide smile on his face which looked quite out of place for the situation but the reason for his wide grin was that after two months of constant taijutsu and chaka control exercise he could confidently say that he had finally mastered the leaf floating exercise, he could now float multiple leaves on multiple parts of his body and hold them there for as long as he wanted with little focus and could even do that while taijutsu training.

Chakra control wasn't the only thing he had improved in; he had also made tremendous progress in his taijutsu training. He had vastly improved his speed, strength and stamina from when he started. He could also punch and kick perfectly without even thinking about it with decent speed and strength.

Nothing of note had happened in the last two months so as to disrupt his training and Naruto was able to train almost every day except end of every week had Sarutobi would bring him his allowance on that day as well as take him on his weekly grocery shopping as Naruto was still too young to do it on his own.

'_Well now that I have completed my leaf floating exercise, its time I started on the tree climbing exercise. I will maintain the same schedule as before but now instead of leaf floating exercise I will do tree climbing exercise and taijutsu training in the morning and evening.' _Naruto thought as he slumped to the ground_._

'_But first some rest and food, I am tired and hungry.'_

Having something to eat and an hour rest later Naruto was standing in front of the tree he had selected for his training.

Recalling what he had read Naruto got a running start and only got few steps on the tree before he fell flat on his back. Feeling a little dizzy from the fall Naruto quickly shook it off and tried again.

-Time-skip-

Three months later Naruto had finally mastered the tree walking exercise, past three months had been the most frustrating as well as the most satisfying time Naruto had. Frustrating because mastering tree walking had been a very long as well as frustrating endeavor and even more so when he decided to perform tree walking exercise while doing the leaf floating exercise and that had made the already hard and tedious exercise even more so but he had finally done it, now he could walk, run and everything else between them on any solid surface while performing his leaf floating exercise and he had tested it out on trees as well as walls of abandoned buildings.

Satisfying because when one day Naruto had tried eating in a new restaurant with the money he had gotten from allowance he had been thrown out saying that demons weren't served there. Wanting to get back at the man that threw him out of his restaurant, Naruto had collected cow dung from somewhere and threw it in the restaurant when it had been full of customers which had cost the man and in return the man had chased Naruto all around the village and the villagers were glad to help in any way to get back at the so called demon and Naruto had to dodge the villgers that were in front of him trying to cut him off or catch him while running away from the eventual mob that had gathered and chasing him. That was the time Naruto had a startling revelation, in this way he could improve his stealth and dodge skills as well as get back at the villagers in a way that he might get away with. The past three months had been hell for villagers and most satisfying. Sarutobi had lectured him three times before giving up as he hadn't listened. Sarutobi himself had been amused by the pranks and attempts by the civilian council to get back at Naruto but they hadn't been able to produce any evidence against Naruto and without evidence Naruto got away scot free.

Sarutobi had tried to explain to Naruto that the civilian council especially hated him and they might try something if they ever caught him in the act and so for him to stop the pranks but Naruto had dismissed his worries saying that he would never get caught but Naruto had learned something important then and that was that the civilian council hated him and would try to get back at him in any way possible and Naruto wouldn't understand its importance until later.

Well he had finished his tree walking and was currently sitting with the guide book in his hand deciding to finish reading the book as he had completely mastered the tree walking exercise.

_One of the most important abilities a shinobi must have is elemental chakra. Training ones elemental chakra gives one massive boost of power as the ninjutsus associated with that element are easier to learn and use and also require less chakra and takes the longest time to master. One can even create their very own jutsu associated with the element they have mastered. One is advised to start with primary element and master it before starting on the secondary element. One's elemental aff….. _after this the writing was completely smudged and couldn't be read. Naruto immediately scanned further fearing that elemental training was completely smudged beyond readable.

Thankful training exercises for wind as well as lightning element very completely readable. Seeing that Naruto decided to start with wind element first.

_**Wind Element: **__There are three stages one has to finish to being the master of wind element but its advised to keep training in the element to become better and better at elemental chakra manipulation._

_**First stage: **__The first stage is the leaf cutting exercise, in this exercise one has to imagine their chakra to be a sharpened edge and channel it to the leaf and try to split the leaf perfectly._

_**Second stage:**__ The second stage is the boulder cutting exercise, this exercise is to be performed in the same manner as above but the sharpened edge has to be stronger and sharper to cut a boulder._

_**Third stage:**__ The third stage is the waterfall cutting exercise, to perform this exercise the sharpened edge has to finer and much, much sharper than in earlier exercises to effectively cut a waterfall. The waterfall must be sliced perfectly and completely in such a way that the upper half and the lower half are completely separated for just an instant._

_**Lightning Element: **__There are only two stages in the training of lightning element to become a master._

_**First stage:**__ The first stage is to imagine rubbing chakra against each other and trying to create a spark on the finger._

_**Second stage:**__ The second stage is to trying to create many more sparks on one's hand and combine them to form a small lighting around the hand._

After this only the last para on the last page was somewhat readable.

_**This concludes this guide, if one requires more help they can ask their sensei's or visit the shinobi library that is open for shinobis of Chūnin rank or higher.**_

Right now Naruto could be seen standing in front of a large river that he had found four miles away from his tree house that even had its own waterfall, having decided to try out the water walking for couple of hours before starting with wind element training. Channeling chakra to his soles Naruto placed one foot in the water and immediately sank down.

"Well this is going to take some time." Naruto said to no one particular as he removed his half sunk foot. Naruto tried the exercise for couple of hours without any success and called it quits seeing that it was nearing lunch time.

Preparing his lunch and consuming his lunch after returning back to his apartment Naruto took an hour's break before being back in his clearing excited to start on his wind element training.

"Now let's see I am to hold the leaf on my hand and imagine my chakra as sharpened edge and channel the chakra to the leaf." Naruto recited as he tried to imagine and channel chakra but was unsuccessful in it. Naruto kept trying till evening but Naruto had made absolutely no progress whatsoever and decide break for now and start his taijutsu after small break for refreshments and later retire for the night as in the schedule and continue his scheduled training next day onwards as always but with a small change.

Now that he was training his elemental chakra his schedule had a slight change, he would still do taijutsu training early in the morning as well as in the morning. Chakra training was in the morning till lunch and afternoon was booked for wind element training. The chakra detection as well as hand seal training was carried out in any free time Naruto might have as these exercise could be done even while resting and relaxing.

-Time-skip-

Four months later….

Currently Naruto could be seen taijutsu training on the water surface while multiple leaves could be seen rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise randomly on multiple parts of his body.

After mastering water walking couple of months back Naruto had decided to start on kunai balancing exercise but had come across a problem, he didn't have any kunais to perform the exercise and that would be easily resolved by buying a new set of kunai or so he thought.

-Flashback-

"Well I finished the water walking exercise and as far as I can recall the next and the last thing in chakra control was kunai balancing exercise." Naruto thought recalling all the information regarding the kunai balancing exercise.

"Wait to practice kunai balancing exercise I at least require ten kunais. No problem I have money saved from the allowance oji-san gives me, I will buy some kunais from the nearest shinobi store." With that thought Naruto immediately rushed back to his apartment to get his money to buy the required items.

Getting his money Naruto immediately rushed to the nearest shinobi store.

"Hey, mister I need 12 kunais." Naruto shouted to the store owner as he immediately rushed inside.

The store owner looked at the kid and immediately recognized the boy and frowned he had no hard feelings for the boy instead he sympathized for the boy but he found the request for kunais from the boy odd.

'_What would the boy need kunai for and that at such a young age, not for his pranks I hope.' _The man thought.

"Sorry kid I can't sell you kunais you are neither an academy student nor an shinobi. You aren't a civilian adult and this is a shinobi store that serves only shinobis and academy students." The store owner said sympathetically.

"You aren't selling me well because of who I am? Are you?" Naruto asked suspiciously and dejectedly at not being able to buy items even at shinobi stores.

"I don't care who or what you are, a costumer is a costumer but rules are rules and I won't bend them for anyone." The man replied firmly resenting but understanding why and what the kid implied.

"But you can bring someone to buy them for you." The man replied.

Naruto smiled hearing that and immediately left the store giving the store owner a smile which the man returned.

Naruto immediately ran towards the Hokage tower to get his oji-san to buy him some kunais. Dodging the secretary Naruto rushed inside and thankfully found the Hokage doing nothing except reading a small orange book giggling weirdly. As soon as he saw Naruto rushing inside he quickly put away his book with a small cough and light blush on his face but not before Naruto saw it.

"Naruto it's good to see you, what brings you here?"

"Come on oji-san we have to go."

"Where exactly do we have to go and why?" Sarutobi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"To the shinobi store to buy kunais." Naruto replied as it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"The store owner said that I couldn't buy the kunais myself but someone else could buy them for me, you buy them for me oji-san and I will pay." Naruto continued.

"And why exactly do you want them?" Sarutobi asked raising his eyebrows even further.

"I…I…I just want it." Naruto floundered not wanting to give the real reason afraid that he would be stopped from continuing his training.

"Why?" This time Sarutobi asked firmly.

"Well I seen ninjas training using them so I thought that if I had them I could also train to be ninja." Naruto replied quickly thinking up a lie and praying that his oji-san bought it. Thankfully Sarutobi bought the lie and his posture softened causing Naruto to breath in relief.

"You cannot have kunais Naruto you are still too young to have them and you have no one to teach you to properly use them and you know I can't teach you it will cause all sorts of problems if I did." Sarutobi replied.

Immediately bringing his hand up to stop any complaints he continued.

"This is final Naruto but I promise I will gift you with a brand new set of kunais and shurikens as soon as you start the academy." Sarutobi finished firmly.

Knowing that nothing would shake the Hokage from his position now Naruto reluctantly and dejectedly accepted the decision. Seeing Naruto dejected saddened the old Hokage.

"So Naruto what do you think about some ramen?" Naruto immediately perked up hearing about his favorite food.

"Really oji-san!" Seeing the old Hokage nod his head Naruto continued.

"Come on then let's go."

After having his fill of ramen a much more cheerful Naruto made his way to his training ground.

-End Flashback-

Naruto couldn't do the kunai balancing exercise without kunais and eventual decided to make his own exercise with materials he could currently get and improve his chakra control. After brainstorming for few days he had an epiphany to mix his chakra control exercises and tweak them and that gave birth to multiple leaves rotating exercise on multiple parts of his body while performing tree or water walking exercises. That was what he was currently doing combing his taijutsu training, water walking exercise and his newly created leaf rotating exercise.

Naruto had become quite famous or infamous from ones point of view for his pranks in the last couple of months. Naruto had dismissed Sarutobi's lecture but had taken one thing to heart that was to not get caught as well as to leave no evidence pointing to him. So Naruto kept pulling pranks silently and leaving no tracks behind, the complexity of his pranks ever growing as the same pranks never worked twice even in other places as the word and working of his pranks spread quickly. Pulling such pranks inadvertently increased Naruto's stealth and infiltration skills as well his trap making skills which in turn would help him greatly in coming years. The villagers knew that Naruto was behind all the pranks but didn't have any proof for legal action and as such chased him whenever they saw him and which in turn helped Naruto in his dodge practice but recently he could easily dodge everything that the villagers did with his now quick reflexes and out run them soon he would require more of a challenge but that was a thought for another time.

Naruto had even made small progress in his wind chakra training, after nearly four months of work on it Naruto could only make a cm of cut on a leaf but he wasn't disheartened and was working on it.

Last four months had also disrupted his training schedule due to his need to pull pranks to get back at some villagers that overcharged him or threw him out of their shops as most of them had done when Naruto had tried to buy something for himself and also have his dodge practices but thankfully the only thing that had been affected was the evening taijutsu training as that was the time Naruto pulled most of his pranks and got the villagers to chase him through the village.

A week ago Naruto had also located the shinobi as well as civilian library. Both were located at the center of the village next to each other. Naruto had tried to gain entry trying his luck that he might get into the library even if he wasn't a shinobi but he had been barred entry and politely told that the shinobi library was only accessible to shinobi's of Chūnin rank or higher and that if he wanted to read something about ninjas he could find material on basics of chakra in the civilian library.

After that Naruto had tried the civilian library thinking that he might find more that chakra basics if he was lucky. He still remembered what had happened.

-Flashback-

Naruto after being politely rebuffed from entering the shinobi library Naruto made his way to the civilian public library.

Knowing someone entering the librarian looked up smiling but the smile on her face immediately dropped off and was replaced with a fierce scowl as soon as she saw who the person was.

"What are you doing her brat?" the librarian spat angrily.

"Well I want look at the books in the library." Naruto replied resignedly knowing what was going to come knowing the look on her face.

'_But that doesn't stop me from pranking her every chance I get.' _Naruto fiercely thought.

"And as far as I know anyone is allowed into the library."

"A demon needing to read ha… get out of here brat we don't serve your kind here before I get someone else to throw you out."

Immediately sticking his tongue out at her Naruto turned and quickly left. He made his way to the Hokage tower to complain as Naruto needed entry to the library to find out if there was anything that could help him in his ninja training.

"Hey oji-san, the library oba-san didn't allow me into library to get some story books to read." Naruto complained as soon as he rushed in.

"She did, did she." With anger in his voice, he had known that he was been overcharged and thrown out of many stores but he couldn't do anything them as those were private installations but library was public Konoha property and he could do something.

"Come on let's go see shall we." Sarutobi replied as he shunshined to the entrance of the library along with Naruto.

"Naruto stay here, I will go sort something out first then I will call you." Sarutobi told Naruto as he purposefully strode into the library.

"Haokage-sama, welcome how can I help you?" The old librarian smiled kindly at the Hokage.

"Well Akane-san I just heard from one of my ninja that you refused entrance one of Konoha's citizen." The old Hokage replied with false kind voice.

"Who might that be?" she asked confused.

"One Uzumaki Naruto." Hoakge replied with a hard edge in his voice.

"Refusing a legal Konoha resident entrance is a crime Akane-san and Naruto is as legal a resident as anyone of you and library is a public property and you have no right refuse him entrance."

"That dem …" she immediately stopped on feeling focused killing intent on her.

"Be careful of what you say next Akane-san or Ibiki-san might get a new guest I hear his new apprentice is most eager to start."

Akane-san paled and shivered slightly at the thought of those two especially the new apprentice and wisely kept her mouth shut.

"If I hear something similar has happened the next time losing your job will be the least of your worries." The old Hokage threatened with a blast of focused killing intent to get his point across, he was only being sympathetic because she had lost nearly all her family in the kyuubi attack but this would be her only warning.

"Don't think you will get way if you try something behind my back as I have him watched round the clock." Not that he had the man power to have him watched 24/7 but the she didn't need to know that, satisfied at seeing the terrified woman nod.

"Now give me a library card with Uzumaki Naruto's on it and quickly."

The woman quickly pulled out a new card and wrote the name and quicky handed it to the Hokage.

Nodding his head he took the card and went outside and handed Naruto the card.

"Here you go Naruto you can borrow and take home any book you want for a certain period of time and do not worry the old lady won't try anything in the future." Sarutobi said.

"Thank you oji-san." Naruto said while hugging the old Hokage tightly, the old Hokage smiled softly and ruffled his hair.

"Now let's get you inside the library." Sarutobi said as he escorted Naruto into the library. As they passed the librarian, the lady gave Naruto a scathing look which Naruto returned with cheeky smirk infuriating the woman. The Hokage frowned at the woman while hiding his amusement at the Naruto's smirk. After escorting Naruto inside the library the Hokage immediately took off to his tower to finish his accursed paper work.

-End-Flashback-

But the best news had come just few days ago.

-Flashback-

Today Naruto decided to skip his evening training for once and return home early for some rest not wanting to pull any pranks for the day.

As he was making his way to his apartment Naruto heard sounds of explosions as well as steel fearing that something was happening as well as to satisfy his own curiosity Naruto quickly made his way to the place where the sounds were coming from. Reaching a large ground surrounded by trees and immediately hid himself not wanting to be found by whoever were fighting. After finding proper place that allowed him to hide he started peeking on the fight.

There were two males that looked to be ninjas fighting. One had a large sword while other had his one eye and lower face covered.

Two hours later Naruto was still in a daze looking at the devastated empty ground that had been vacated nearly half an hour ago.

"Ninjas were so cool." Naruto whispered to himself.

He had seen dragons made out of water and lightning and balls of fire as well as water and earth being thrown about as well as what appeared to be a wall of earth to protect oneself. Seeing the fight had strengthened Naruto's determination to be a powerful ninja even more.

Just as Naruto was about to leave the ground he saw something glinting in the ground reaching there Naruto immediately saw a couple of kunais embedded in the ground. After much thinking Naruto decided to take the kunais knowing that couple of kunais wouldn't be missed by anyone and they could get new ones easily while Naruto couldn't and with even these two Naruto start on his kunai balancing exercise.

-End-Flashback-

Naruto was excited about starting his kunai balancing exercise as well as being able to use some of the techniques he had seen both the ninjas and with that Naruto threw himself into training with renewed vigor, excited at what future would bring.

**~The End.~**

Please review and any feedback is appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_**Discliamer: I don't Naruto or any of the characters therein; they belong to their respective companies and creators. This story is just for entertainment and no money is been made out of this and one more thing everything else not seen in any manga or anime belongs solely to me.**_

'_Blah, blah, blah…..' Normal Thought._

_Blah, blah, blah….. Written material._

'_**Blah, blah, blah…..' **__Demon or Summon Thought._

"_**Blah, blah, blah….." **__Demon or Summon Speak._

"Blah, blah, blah….." Normal Speak.

Not Beta-tested, so sorry in advance for any typos and grammatical errors.

PM me if anyone is interested in beta-reading.

Now onto the story….

One year later…..

Past year had been a year of revelations not so much personal but about the world he lived in and its violent and turbulent history. He had read about the few heroes that stood up to the dark and corrupt world. The library had been an immense help in a way he hadn't thought about.

**-Flashback-**

It had been a week since Naruto had been coming to the library infrequently and this had been his third visit so far and he had yet to find any mention of anything regarding ninja training except basics of chakra.

Currently Naruto was searching through section called "History" thinking that he might find something in this section. Searching through he come upon a very thin book with the title "Hokages of Konoha" and Naruto being a child excitedly thought he might find some ninja techniques from the book that had Hokage word in its title which were some of the strongest ninjas in Konoha and immediately borrowed the book for further reading.

Taking the book to the nearest empty table Naruto immediately sat down to read.

_The Hokage (Literally meaning "Fire Shadow") are the leaders of Konohagakure. They are generally the strongest in the village, although ideology and renown plays a large part in their being chosen for the position. Four shinobi have gained this title so far._

_Generally, the new Hokage is selected by the current Hokage upon their retirement, but if the old Hokage dies or is incapacitated before being able to do so, the Fire Daimyō will appoint a Hokage Candidate upon the recommendation of the Konoha council and the Fire Daimyō council. Afterwards, the candidate will need to be approved by the jōnin of the village to become officially Hokage._

_After being approved, they move into the Hokage Residence to live in and have their faces carved out in the monument behind it. If the former Hokage is still alive, they will generally keep helping out, making the transition easier and more stable. The Hokage carry their title for life, even after retiring from active duty. The Hokage's office is located in the administrative section of the Academy._

_**First Hokage:**_

_Hashirama Senju (Senju Hashirama) was the First Hokage (Shodai Hokage; literally meaning "First or Founding Fire Shadow") of Konohagakure. He hails from the Senju clan who together with the Uchiha clan established Konohagakure. He was noted for his Mukoton or wood release and creation of Valley of the End were statues of his and Madara's have been erected during his battle and his defeat of his friend and co-founder Madara Uchiha after Madara's betrayal._

_Notable Family:_

_Tobirama Senju (Younger Brother)_

_Mito Uzumaki (Wife)_

_Tsunade (Granddaughter)._

_**Second Hokage:**_

_Tobirama Senju (Senju Tobirama) was the Second Hokage (Nidaime Hokage; literally meaning "Second Fire Shadow"). He hails from the Senju clan, who along with the Uchiha clan founded Konohagakure. He is noted for his godly control over his water release and his mastery of Raijin the sword of thunder god and revolutionizing the ninja system by establishing organizations such as the Academy, ANBU, as well as the Konoha Military Police Force._

_Notable Family:_

_Hashirama Senju (Older Brother)_

_Tsunade (Grandniece)._

_**Third Hokage:**_

_Hiruzen Sarutobi (Sarutobi Hiruzen) was the Third Hokage (Sandaime Hokage; literally meaning "Third Fire Shadow") who hailed from Konohagakure's Sarutobi clan. Together with Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, he was the student of the first two Hokage, Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju, and the teacher of the Sannin Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. Hiruzen was called "The Professor", due to his mastery of all forms of shinobi combat, and his vast knowledge of techniques, purportedly knowing all the techniques within Konoha. He was also admired as the "Kami of Shinobi" in his prime. He is the Current reigning Hokage._

_Notable Family:_

_Sasuke Sarutobi (Father)_

_Asuma Sarutobi (Son)_

_Biwako Sarutobi (Wife)_

_Konohamaru Sarutobi (Grandson)._

_**Fourth Hokage:**_

_Minato Namikaze (Namikaze Minato), also known as Konoha's Yellow Flash (Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō), was the Fourth Hokage (Yondaime Hokage; literally meaning "Fourth Fire Shadow"). He was noted for his personal jutsu the Rasengan and Hiraishin the flying thunder god technique both of which were his personal creations and his single handed defeat a large Iwa force using them and ending the Third Shinobi war. He was the youngest Hokage and it is said that he had the potential to surpass all the previous Hokages. He was also considered a hero for defeating the nine tailed kyuubi sacrificing his life in process._

_No Notable family known._

Naruto face could be seen cycling through various emotions from surprise, gratefulness, happiness to awe. He was surprised and awed at the Hokages of Konoha and their abilities and their consideration as the strongest Shinobi in Konoha and one of the strongest outside of it. That was the moment Naruto dreamed no decided of becoming the strongest the get the title of Hokage for himself one day.

He was also happy and shocked that he wasn't the first and only Uzumaki in fact the wife of Shodai was an Uzumaki. He felt grateful that he at least had someone he was connected even if the person was dead.

'_But there might be some Uzumakis still alive and if so I could ask them the reason for abandoning me.' _Naruto thought.

'_But first I must find more information on Uzumakis and its best to start from Mito Uzumaki and Shodai Hokage, I might find more information easily on Uzumakis that way.' Naruto decided._

Placing the book back in its place Naruto started searching for more information on Shodai Hokage or Mito Uzumaki but an hour of searching Naruto found absolutely nothing more on either of them but had found a book titled "Konohagakure and its History" and Naruto hoped that he might find more information in there.

'_Damn it there is absolutely no information anywhere about them, it's Shodai Hokage and his wife for heaven's sake_.' Naruto silently cried.

His final hope rested in the book he was currently holding.

_**Konohagakure**__ (Konohagakure no Sato; Literally meaning "Village Hidden by Tree Leaves"; also known as "Village Hidden by the Leaves" or "Hidden Leaf Village") is the hidden village of the Land of Fire. As one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, Konohagakure has a Kage as its leader known as the Hokage. There have been four official Hokage, the most recent being Minato Namikaze the_ _Yondaime but the Sandaime is the current Hokage after the Yondaime's death. On a mountain overlooking the village exists the Hokage Monument. Although Konoha which is known as the most powerful village possessing an elite shinobi army corps, much like the country in which it resides, has been relatively peaceful since the end of the Third Shinobi World War, it remains one of the most powerful villages in existence, and has great military power and influence._

_**History**_

_**Founding:**_

_In the time before the creation of the ninja villages, ninja were organised into small mercenary clans that knew nothing but battle. Of the countless ninja clans, the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan were the strongest. After much bloodshed, the Senju clan offered a truce with the Uchiha. The leader of the Uchiha, Madara Uchiha objected, and was forced, by the rest of the Uchiha to accept. The Senju, the Uchiha, and the other clans conquered by the Uchiha came together to create Konohagakure. Hashirama Senju, the leader of the Senju, used his wood release abilities to produce much of the villages' infrastructure. For this reason he was selected to be the First Hokage by the villagers._

_Fearing that the Senju who were now in control of Konoha, would oppress them because they were their former rivals, Madara tried to gather support to overthrow Hashirama. However, no Uchiha would help, forcing him to take on Hashirama by himself. Madara was ultimately defeated at what would be called the Valley of the End and was believed to have died._

_**Shinobi Wars:**_

_Konoha took part in the first three ninja wars. Hashirama died during the First Shinobi World War, necessitating his brother replace him as Second Hokage. The Second would also die during the war, killed by Kumogakure's ninja, but he appointed Hiruzen Sarutobi as his successor before his death. The most notable ally of Konoha during this era was the village of Uzushiogakure and their most prominent and rulers the Uzumaki clan but the village was wiped out during this era by other shinobi villages. _

Naruto stopped reading there his face cycling through from happiness and finally settling on sadness on knowing the fate of his clan's village.

"Damn" Naruto whispered while furiously rubbing his eyes to stop himself from crying, he hadn't cried in a long time and he wasn't going to start now.

'_If they had their own village that means there must be something more about it somewhere even if the village was destroyed long time ago.' _Naruto thought and went towards the book shelf to replace the current book and search for books that had information about other villages.

Before he could start his search he heard the old librarian scathingly telling him that it was time to close the library and better get out of here if he didn't want to be locked in the library.

Naruto wanted to borrow some books and take it with him but decided against tempting fate tonight as he had to be here next day to search more on his clan.

Naruto left the library try to shake off his sadness.

'_So what if my clan was destroyed, at least I had a clan of my own and I am not some orphan picked up from the street.' _Naruto thought trying to cheer up and achieving some success in it.

Returning back to his apartment Naruto immediately collapsed on his futon and instantly fell asleep without changing his clothes or having dinner feeling unnaturally drained and tired.

Next morning woke up late and after completing his usual morning ritual Naruto decided to skip his training for the day and head towards the library to find out more about the clan he belonged to.

Entering the library he made his way quickly to the history section not even acknowledging the old librarian which infuriated her even more.

Naruto immediately started searching any books which had any information on the villages in the elemental nations. After searching for few minutes Naruto found the perfect book. He immediately took the book titled "Villages of Elemental Nations" and sat down to read. He immediately skipped all the other villages and came upon the page that had villages starting from alphabet and searching through it he immediately found the village he was looking for and small paragraph of information accompanying it.

_**Uzushiogakure:**_

_Uzushiogakure (Uzushiogakure no Sato; literally meaning "Village Hidden by Whirling Tides") was the shinobi village of the Land of Whirlpools. Its Uzumaki clan members were renowned for their fūinjutsu to the point that it led to its destruction in war. Those who survived the village's destruction scattered across the globe._

_In terms of appearance, the village seemed to have been composed of several high-rise buildings. A wide river seemingly ran through the village and was gapped by large bridges. The surrounding countryside was dominated by steep hills._

_Uzushiogakure had close ties with Konohagakure, due to Uzushio's Uzumaki clan and Konoha's Senju clan being distant relatives. Because of this, all the flak jackets worn by the chūnin and jōnin-level shinobi of Konohagakure bear the crest of Uzushiogakure, symbolising the strong friendship between both villages.[1] This symbol is also emblazoned on the some of the shoulders of the outfits that the Konoha shinobi wear underneath the flak jackets._

Reading this Naruto was highly disappointed at the small amount of information present on his information.

'_May be I could find something about my clan in here after all they were distant relatives of Senju clan and close allies of Konoha.' _Naruto thought and immediately started searching for books dealing with clans of Konoha.

'_Let's see "The Clans of Konoha" yes this will do, now U…U… Uchiha no ah here it is Uzumaki.'_

_**Uzumaki Clan:**_

_The Uzumaki clan was a prominent clan in Uzushiogakure. They were also distant relatives of the Senju clan and thus both clans were on good terms; an alliance that extended onto their hidden villages — Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure. The shinobi of Konoha integrated Uzushiogakure's symbol onto their uniforms and flak jackets as well as on the shoulders of their uniforms as a sign of friendship and goodwill between the two villages, and continue to do so to this day, in memory of their friendship even years after Uzushiogakure's destruction. The clan was made an honorary member clan of Konoha after their destruction._

_Members of this clan were very knowledgeable of fūinjutsu. This reputation earned them renown and fear worldwide, which eventually led to the destruction of Uzushiogakure, and the rest of the Land of Whirlpools during the era of Shinobi World Wars. With the destruction of their homeland, few remaining survivors fled the country going into hiding scattered all around the world. The Uzumaki clan members were known for their longevity and vitality and specifically for their prodigal talents in fūinjutsu._

That was the only information Naruto found on his clan and even after an hour of searching through the history section Naruto found no other mention of Uzumaki clan elsewhere.

'_So my clan is extinct with few if any surviving members in hiding.'_ Naruto thought sadly.

'_No my clan isn't extinct yet, I am still alive and there might be few others still surviving if not then I will build my clan up from ground up if required and make the Uzumaki name renowned and feared again as it was in the past even if I have to do it myself at first.' _Naruto decided with determination.

'_As far as I can see Uzumaki clan members had no bloodline limit was their fūinjutsu whatever that is so fearsome if so I have to learn it after I too am a Uzumaki clan member.' _With that thought in mind Naruto started searching for any information related to fūinjutsu.

A week later Naruto had gone through the whole history section in the library and found absolutely nothing on the subject and that greatly disappointed him but had hope that he could find some information in other sections. All he knew about the fūinjutsu was what he learned from his old guide book that they were seals and sealing techniques and that's it but Naruto was absolutely sure he would find much more information on fūinjutsu as well other subjects in the shinobi library. He couldn't get in there now but someday soon he would even if he had to break in.

**-End Flashback-**

Naruto had continued his training with a small change in his schedule, he had stopped his evening taijutsu training and that time had been occupied by information gathering from the library in the wane hope that he might some more that affected him personally. He had learned much about Konoha and elemental nations in general after scoping nearly half the library but absolutely nothing personal but he still had to go through some remaining sections and so held out hope however slight it was.

He came to know how Konoha was the center of change that abated some of the violence and turbulence of the clan wars era, still it wasn't enough as there had been even more wars in the name of land and power. He had found out about the biggest tragedy of Konoha when the two founders of the Konoha clashed in an epic battle and that was when Konoha lost their not only their founders but also their leader, it was also Konoha's biggest shame as one of the founder had betrayed their newly found village over petty jealousy.

He read about the shinobi clan wars and Konoha's victory but at the loss of their Shodai Hokage.

About the first shinobi war few years later and defeat of Kumo's twenty most strongest and skilled ninja at the loss of Nidaime Hokage.

The second great shinobi war between Iwagakure, Sunagakure, Amegakure and Konohagakure and Konoha's eventual victory. The formation of three sannins students of his oji-san and Hanzo of the salamander that was said to be as strong as oji-san.

The third great shinobi war between Iwagakure and Konoha, where Minato Namikaze earned his nickname of Konoha's yellow flash and singlehandedly won Konoha the war, about the Sasori of the Red Sand and Copy Ninja Kakashi.

He had also read about the greatest legend the Rikudō Sennin the "Savior of Shinobi World" and his battle and victory over a great demon and his gift of chakra to the world and much more.

He also learned about the five great villages and other smaller villages. He also learned a great deal of geography of the elemental nations and positions all the countries small to great in the elemental nations.

Even with all he had learned from the library Naruto was still greatly disappointed all he had learned were the basics but absolutely no details especially of the ninja world. He had learned of all the legendary ninja but absolutely nothing about their abilities or details. It seemed as if all the important ninja details were purposely selected from the civilian library and he was absolutely sure that he would find more details in the shinobi library that he still hadn't be able to break into and that increased his desire to break into the shinobi library quickly even more.

The information gathering he had done hadn't affected his training at all he still continued his usual training except taijutsu training in the evening which had been dedicated to library but in the last year he had also received a boost in his taijutsu training due to an interesting meeting.

**-Flashback-**

Naruto was currently in his 3rd lap around Konoha, since last week Naruto had been running laps around Konoha instead like his usual at his training ground in the forest of death. Early morning there were no villagers to interfere and if someone asked him he could easily answer as running laps for fitness as wanted to become a ninja in the future. Naruto was quietly finishing his quota of five laps when he heard a shout from behind him.

"Hello my youthful friend it is good see someone so young exercising his youth through this youthful running."

Turning around to the source of voice Naruto immediately shuddered. The person in front of him could be described in one word weird, the person was tall had a bowl cut shaped hair and the biggest and thickest eyebrows he had ever seen, hell Naruto was sure right then that the creepy eyebrows were sure alive. The jumpsuit oh the jumpsuit was bright neon green. As soon as Naruto finally paid proper attention to the man in front of him, he immediately smiled giving him a double thumbs up and Naruto was immediately blinded by the bright flash from his teeth as the man smiled.

'_How the hell does ones teeth shine so brightly that's just not normal, that just has to be a genjutsu. Maybe I am hallucinating.' _Naruto thought shaking his head trying to clear his mind.

'_Nope I am not hallucinating. The weird guy is still in front of me and talking to me.'_

"Who are you?" Naruto asked after recovering from his bout of Guy-shock which everyone suffered from after meeting him for the first time.

"I am Maito Gai the only taijutsu master of Konoha and who might you be my youthful friend." The man replied while flashing him another blinding smile who could now without a doubt be identified as a Konoha ninja from his Konoha protector.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki the future ninja and Hokage of Konoha." Naruto introduced himself enthusiastically happy that someone had asked him his name even if it was this weird guy.

"It is most pleasant to meet one whose youth burns so brightly, I have seen you running laps around Konoha for a week now."

"Are you by any chance training?" Gai asked interested in the answer.

"Yes I run 5 laps around Konoha every morning to train my body to improve my taijutsu." Naruto replied not worrying as he wasn't doing anything wrong most of who want to become ninjas start early.

"If I may ask who is your sensei?" Gai asked interested in knowing the sensei of this most youthful student.

"Well I don't have a sensei." Naruto replied feeling embarrassed at not having anyone to teach him.

"You don't any sensei, then how do you train." An astonished Gai exclaimed.

"Well I found some basic taijutsu exercises in a guide book that I have been following for nearly a year."

"Training taijutsu without a sensei that's not good and even dangerous you could have hurt yourself and that to permanently, come with me and show me what you have been doing." With that Gai set off while motioning Naruto to follow.

"Well tell me what taijutsu exercises you have been doing." Gai asked as soon as they reached a large open clearing that from the looks of it was used as training ground for ninjas.

Naruto responded to the question without protest not worried about revealing his taijutsu training program and he even might get some help from the self-proclaimed taijutsu master of Konoha.

"Well I do ten sets of sit-ups, push-ups and pull-ups, 5 laps around Konoha, 100 punches and kicks every day in the morning." Naruto replied not mentioning about his evening training as currently his evenings were occupied with the library.

"Those are basics that should have been performed for a month or two before moving on to other exercises, if you had a sensei you would have been corrected but even so you have done an admirable job by yourself." Gai replied while feeling impressed at the tough training regimen the young boy followed.

"Now let's see your punches and kicks and I will see if you perform them properly or not." Gai ordered while taking Naruto to the nearest training post.

"Don't hold back I want to see your strongest punch and kick."

Naruto stepped forward and unleashed his strongest punch and kick after bandaging his hand and legs. He bandaged them to avoid from scraping his hands or legs during his punches and kicks practice and removed them afterwards as he didn't like keeping them bandaged as they usually itched and all his bruises usually healed within hours so there was no reason to keep them bandaged after his punching and kicking training.

Seeing Naruto's strongest and fastest punch and kick Gai deduced that it was mid to high Genin level.

"Your punches and kicks are good as well as quite strong and fast for your age and the form is also perfect." Gai praised.

"Do you know any taijutsu style; no I don't think you do as that would require a sensei." Gai continued.

"Would you like to learn a specific style? I could teach you if you want and your body is well trained to start on basic katas of any style?" Gai offered interested in teaching a young aspiring ninja who seemed to know the importance of taijutsu and most of the ninjas or aspiring ninjas he knew or met seemed more interested in other jutsus often neglecting taijutsu until too late.

"Would you really like to teach me?" Naruto asked with disbelief in his voice.

"Yes, if you agree I would like to teach you but you have to be dedicated and determined enough to follow my training regime." Gai replied firmly leaving no doubt that if Naruto wasn't dedicated enough then he wouldn't teach him anymore.

"I won't disappoint you sensei." Naruto replied bowing still feeling overwhelmed but still had enough sense to show respect to the one who was going to be his teacher.

"Good then we will start your training tomorrow. You will only run your usual laps before coming here but not anything else. I will be giving you a new training regime that you will follow hereafter." Gai-sensei ordered.

Seeing Naruto's nod Gai-sensei continued.

"Well I will see you tomorrow then, be here and we will see if your youth truly burns brightly or not." With that he left the training ground to finish his laps.

Naruto spent his whole day in a daze still coming to terms at suddenly having a teacher even if only for taijutsu.

The next day Naruto woke up even earlier than ever excited at starting his first day of training with a teacher willing to teach him. Taking a quick shower and his usual breakfast he quickly left his apartment to finish his laps. Finishing his laps he quickly made his way to the designated meeting place, as soon as he reached the training ground he found Gai-sensei performing what looked like simple stretching exercises.

"I came as you asked Gai-sensei." Trying and succeeding in gaining Gai's attention.

"Ah, my youthful friend truly your youth burns brightly to come here earlier than even I accepted you to be here." Gai-sensei shouted with enthusiasm.

"Now that you are here let us start. I will be changing your exercises as well as start on the basic katas of Gouken Ryuu the Strong Fist Style."

"I will show you the exercises you have to practice daily after your laps from now until I give you another set, this will be your training regime from now." Gai-sensei said while handing Naruto a sheet of paper.

"This exercise sheet contains all the training exercises one can do to train one's body, select few exercises from this will constitute your daily schedule that I will show you after you go through this." Gai-sensei continued.

Taking the sheet Naruto nodded and read the sheet Gai had provided.

"This is for your reference only when I am not here and if you have any doubts you can refer to it. Now I will show you which ones to perform and how many sets." Gai-sensei said while showing and helping Naruto with the exercises he had to practice daily.

An hour later Naruto could perform most of the exercises shown without trouble except maybe a few.

"Good you can do most of the exercises those that are difficult will come with time." Gai-sensei praised.

"Now we will take a half an hour break to rest and recover."

Half an hour later Naruto was standing in front of Gai excited to learn a specific taijutsu style.

"Naruto the style I am going to teach you the Gouken ryuu, the Strong Fist Style. It is the style that I have mastered. This style as its name suggests focuses on injuring the body and breaking bones, dealing primary damage to the outer body."

Seeing Naruto's nod Gai continued.

"As this taijutsu style depends on dealing massive amount of damage to the outer body and a primary offensive style the user requires a lot of speed and strength." Gai finished.

"Now your body is strong enough to learn the basic katas of Gouken ryuu so we can skip all strength and speed building exercise." Gai said and started teaching him the basic kata of Gouken ryuu.

It was nearing lunch time when Gai ended the taijutsu training for the day.

"That's enough for the day; tomorrow I will bring you some chakra weights to help your taijutsu training." Gai-sensei said ending the training session.

"Chakra weights, sensei?" Naruto asked confused.

"Yes they are weights that one usually wears on their arms and legs to increase their speed and strength in relatively less time." Gai explained.

The next day followed the same pattern as the day before except Naruto was a proud owner of a pair of chakra. He was excited at the prospect of chakra weights which lasted till Naruto had to put on the weights and continue his taijutsu training. Naruto was given a brief overview of the chakra weights how they function and how to remove them but also stressed over the importance of practicing without chakra weights so that you could get used to fight once the weights were removed.

The next month continued in the same rhythm with taijutsu training from early morning to lunch and to compensate for the time lost for his chakra training Naruto decided to forgo chakra control exercise as he had mastered nearly all the exercises except the kunai balancing in which he had made some minute progress but he could continue it later and for now would focus on his wind nature chakra control in the afternoon and in the library in the evening.

Currently Gai and Naruto could be seen sparing in which Naruto wasn't even holding his own let alone putting up a fight.

"That's enough Naruto." Gai said bringing up his hand up and stopping the spar.

Currently Gai was in a complete quandary so as to what to do with Naruto.

'_He can perfectly recreate the basic kata in practice but is complete unable to use is properly in our spars. No that's not it he can use it in spars but when I restrict him to spar only using Gouken kata he is so terrible that even a lowly academy student would defeat him.' _Gai tried to make sense while thinking over the problem in his head.

'_Now anyone would just declare that he is terrible at taijutsu and be done with it but that's just not it either, when I don't place any restriction on him and allow him to fight as he likes his taijustsu jumps low academy student to low chūnin level.' _Now one might think how that would be possible and Gai himself couldn't get his head around it truth to be told.

Whenever Naruto fights without restriction he doesn't and hasn't even once used the full gouken kata in spars, he uses parts of it and that's it but never the full kata and was completely unpredictable for eg. If an attack was blocked earlier then when the opponent comes again with a strategy involving Naruto blocking the same earlier attack to get a hit on Naruto that attack Naruto dodges instead of blocking complete unbalancing the opponent. There was no grand or complex strategy involved neither could Naruto read a opponent on the level of sharingan, it was just his instinct mixed with his strategic mind developed due to his pranks coming up with quick and simple strategies in an instant and employed in that same instant which caused his unpredictability seem instinctual and wild which in turn it was but there was in small part his mind too involved which an observer couldn't notice. Due to that no one could guess what he was going to do and it made it nearly impossible to attack or defend against him.

Gai finally after full past month of observation decided that Naruto was just not compatible with gouken style not realizing the inherent advantage and strength of Naruto's unpredictable as he thought that was due to Naruto's own confusion and not being compatible with the gouken style not realizing that Naruto's unpredictability was due to his instincts and his strategic mind.

"Naruto I think you should stop using the gouken style, you just aren't compatible with it." Gai addressed Naruto.

Gai raised his hand to stop any complaints issuing from Naruto and continued.

"I will teach you other style I fairly know but I haven't mastered it and we will see if you are compatible with it or not." Gai finished.

Naruto wanted to protest that he could get it with practice but conceded to Gai-sensei's verdict believing that his sensei knew better than he did as he was after all a taijutsu master.

Couple of months later Gai's emotions were warring between frustration and disbelief and awe. Frustration because for the past couple of months he had tried to teach Naruto basics of two more styles and succeeded as well as failed, Naruto could perform the katas perfectly but was still unable to use it in an spar restricted to that style but if permitted to fight without restriction he was able to mix and easily use the basic katas of all three styles. Disbelief and awe as he realized that his unpredictable freestyle fighting was not disorganized brawling but well planned and if he was reading Naruto's fighting style correctly then his style had potential to even the strongest taijutsu user and the sharingan should be completely useless against him as Naruto had not set pattern in his style and he his plans and execution were in an instant and somewhat instinct based it would be nearly impossible to safely predict his movements and plans and if predicted counter it in time. Naruto's fighting style completely baffled Gai and he knew that no one else could learn it because there were no fixed stances to learn, one just had to have that instinct as well as proper mindset to ever fight like Naruto did and that part also really frustrated Gai as that made it impossible even for him to learn.

"That is enough for the time Naruto, come here I want to talk about something important with you." Gai said while gesturing Naruto to come.

"Naruto I think it's best if you give up on learning any specific styles."

Hearing this Naruto immediately started protesting and arguing against it.

"Quite! First hear me out then you can complain if you want." Gai said in hard voice cutting off any more complaints.

"I not asking you to give up taijustsu I am just telling you to give up on learning any specific style as you wouldn't be able to use it properly in your fight, you yourself should have noticed how bad you are in our spars when you are restricted to only using a certain style." Gai explained.

Hearing this Naruto reluctantly nodded conceding Gai-sensei point.

"But there is nothing to worry I know you have developed a unique way of fighting you use when we spar without restrictions. I just recently realized that way of fighting you use is perfectly and uniquely suited to you. So we will develop that from here onwards." Gai explained.

"As far as I have seen your fighting style depends on amount of variations you have and you are also easily able to incorporate the basic katas of the three styles I have taught you easily that means that your fighting style is flexible enough to incorporate from other styles and through it grow even stronger."

"It also seems that more variations you have the stronger and better your fighting style becomes. So to improve your fighting style I have decided to teach you all the variations of punches and kicks and other katas I know." Gai finished.

"So sensei your saying that a single style is not suitable for me but my freestyle is?" Naruto asked trying to understand what Gai-sensei explained.

"Yes that is a simple way to put it." Gai answered.

"Now come we will start on the training that will improve your freestyle fighting."

The next couple of months Gai taught Naruto various ways of attacking and defending derived from styles he knew and also counters to give Naruto much more options in fights.

"This is all I can teach you Naruto, the only thing remaining now is practice, you will become stronger with time and experience and hence forth I too will not be able to meet you and there is even no need for us to meet anymore."

"Why can't we meet anymore sensei, you don't want to teach me anymore?" Naruto asked feeling saddened and betrayed.

"It is not that I don't want to teach you as I said earlier I taught you everything I know and all you require now is time, practice and experience and also I have recently been given a long term mission that might last from months to years." Gai explained making Naruto understand that he wasn't abandoning or something.

"So you are going on a long term mission sensei and I won't be able to contact you." Naruto asked understanding the reason Gai-sensei was unable to teach or meet him in near future.

"Yes and Naruto-kun you have been a most youthful student and I am most proud at have been your teacher however short of a time." Gai replied with immense pride in his voice.

"Thank you Gai-sensei. I will continue my training and become even stronger." Naruto stated his eyes shining with unshed tears.

"I know you will, your skill in taijutsu is already high chūnin and your speed and strength high genin. You have also been able to increase your weights three times in past few months and that's faster than I have ever known and if you keep at it you may as well become stronger and faster than anyone else that's been training for the same amount of time as you." Gai finished with a heavy smile and turned around leaving the ground in a sedate pace instead of using the shunshin wanting to take in the training ground where he had his last meeting as sensei for his very first student.

"Good-bye and thank you for everything sensei." Naruto shouted at Gai's retreating back and only gesture of acknowledgement Gai gave was the wave with his hand. Not that he knew it then but that would be the last time Naruto would meet Gai as his sensei.

**-End Flashback-**

After Gai sensei had left Naruto had diligently continued his taijutsu training, as there wasn't any teaching involved his early morning taijutsu training hours decreased considerably so much so that he could once again train his kunai balancing exercise for an hour or so before lunch.

His taijutsu wasn't the only thing that had improved in the past year his wind chakra control had also progressed. He had finished the leaf cutting exercise and had also made significant progress in the tree cutting exercise. He could cut half through a foot diameter tree but his control hadn't improved to level that he could make a sharper or thicker edge and cut through trees finely and cleanly.

Naruto had also suffered a painful revelation that had led to the shattering of his trust in the man he loved and trusted the most at that time. He still remembered the painful day with vivid clarity, it had been just after Gai-sensei had left on his mission and he had becoming frustrated at no other information on Uzumaki clan and being unable to access the shinobi library and had finally decided to ask his oji-san about his family he should know he was Hokage after all.

**-Flashback-**

"Damn it there is absolutely no other information on Uzumaki clan and I have finished going through the last remaining sections." Naruto growled while slamming the book, thankfully he was further back in the library that the old woman didn't hear him or he would have been thrown out without even a warning.

"I can't get into the shinobi library yet and I have one else to get any further information from." Naruto sighed then immediately straightened as a thought flashed through his head.

"Oji-san!" Naruto exclaimed.

'_Oji-san would definitely know more about Uzumaki clan.' _With that thought Naruto immediately ran out of the library towards the Hokage tower with excitement bubbling inside him.

"Oji-san, oji-san I want to ask you something important." Naruto shouted as he reached the Hokage's office after evading the secretary.

"Hoh, long time not seen Naruto-kun, how are you?" Sarutobi asked.

"I am fine oji-san I wanted ask….."

"Something important yes I know." Hokage finished.

"So what is so important that you had to barge in here?"

"Oji-san, do you anything about my family." Naruto asked.

Hokage immediately stiffened at the question but relaxed soon after. He had expected the question from Naruto much earlier; he was just surprised at the unexpectedness of the question.

"No Naruto-kun I don't know anything about your family, I am sorry Naruto you were found in the aftermath of kyuubi attack with just a tag with your name on it." The old Hokage lied through his teeth feeling saddened at having to lie to Naruto who he considered like his grandson.

"You don't anything or anyone with an Uzumaki name." Naruto asked with a slight desperation leaking in his voice.

"No Naruto I have never known anyone with an Uzumaki name." Hokage replied not realizing that Naruto had found information on Uzumaki already from the library and in his naivety thought that Naruto just read story books and not anything else as all this information was stored in the adult section and wasn't accessible to anyone below 15 years of age. He had thought that the old woman wouldn't give him access to those sections but the old librarian hadn't cared and had interpreted Hokage's threat as giving full access of the library to Naruto.

Hearing that Naruto's world shattered he knew that his oji-san was lying after all he had found about the Uzumaki clan in the library. He till today trusted oji-san the most and seeing his most trusted person lying straight to his face shattered him and he felt completely betrayed and not wanting the Hokage to see the look on his face as well as the tears he was keeping at bay kept his head down and dejectedly nodded his head and left the Hokage tower.

Hokage sadly watched Naruto leaving his office dejected and not having the heart or the will to cheer him up as he himself was feeling down. As Naruto left his office Sarutobi turned towards the portrait of Yondaime.

"Did I do the right thing Minato, only time will tell eh? May be one day I will able to ask his forgiveness for lying to him."

Naruto immediately rushed to his training ground in the forest of death as soon as came out of the Hokage tower. Immediately seeking out a tree Naruto started furiously punching the tree, anger and hurt at the betrayal flowing out of him in waves.

"Why, why, why **GODDAMNIT WHY**." Naruto screamed.

An hour later he could be seen slumped on his knees blood flowing freely from his bruised and skinned knuckles.

'_Why did oji-san no I will not call him that Hokage-sama lied, I trusted him and he lied straight to me face without hesitation, I will never trust him again' _Naruto thought while trying to calm himself down and succeeding somewhat. Taking a deep breath got up and slowly made his way to his tree house. Reaching the tree house Naruto took a huge gulp of water from the bottle he always kept in the tree house in case of emergencies and sat down and closed his eyes leaning against the tree trunk.

"_Why keep the information from me it doesn't make sense. Does he not want me to learn about my family if so why." _Naruto thought with a much clearer head.

'_To know that I have to gather more information and the only place I can get the required is the shinobi library, I have to get in there as soon as possible.'_

'_But still it hurts knowing that the person I trusted the most in the whole world lied to me. I know he cares about me if he didn't he wouldn't have helped me whenever I was in trouble and would have abandoned and ignored me just like the villagers.'_

'_Can I forgive him…..? No never.' _Was Naruto's last thought as darkness enveloped his mind.

**-End Flashback-**

Six months have passed since Naruto's meeting of Hokage and since then most of Naruto's anger has abated enough that the thought of forgiving his oji-san had occurred to him but the blow to his trust was not easy to forget. One thing was for sure he would never trust his oji-san completely ever again. He had just recently been able to face his oji-san without his anger overwhelming him but the day he may forgive the old man was still far off. After his anger had abated enough that he could understand that the old man may have his reasons of not telling him about his parents but not even telling him about his clan that he just couldn't understand and that was the main reason his still carried some left over resentment and anger till date. His contact with the Hokage too had dwindled to almost nothing for past six months as a result.

His taijutsu training specially his chakra weights had given him massive boost in strength and speed. He had already increased his weights three times in past six months since Gai-sensei had left and over all six times by channeling chakra to his weights whenever his got used to the pervious weight.

He had also started trying to harness his wind elemental chakra and create at least small breeze if possible. Till date he had been unable to, he was successful in bringing out his wind chakra but that was just on the palm of his hand but hadn't been able to push it any further than his hand.

He had also made significant progress in his kunai balancing and with confidence state he had near mastered the exercise. He could easily balance the kunai on any finger-tips as well as both the kunais on different finger-tips at the same time. He could also balance his whole body on the kunai tip upside very easily. The kunai balancing exercise hadn't been easy he had cut himself lot of times especially in the beginning. He couldn't say he mastered the exercise as he didn't know if he could balance a single kunai on each of his finger-tips at the same time as he doesn't have ten kunais. But making this much progress in kunai balancing exercise had increased his chakra control even more and his finishing the tree cutting exercise as well as been able to scratch a boulder could attest to that.

Now that he had finished all his chakra control exercises and was close to completing his wind elemental exercises he was hopeful that he could get into the shinobi library and soon and able find some useful jutsus and if not try to create his very own jutsus like the previous Hokages.

**~The End.~**

**Author's Notes: **Sorry for the slightly smaller chapter but I had to end it here as I like to keep my chapters at around 10K or under and if I continued then the chapter would have been longer anywhere between 18K-20K words.

**P.S.** The next chapter might take longer. Don't curse me curse Bioware for releasing Mass Effect 3.

Please review and any feedback is appreciated.


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